The mystery of the pre–Grand Canyon Colorado River—

The mystery of the pre–Grand Canyon Colorado River—
Results from the Muddy Creek Formation
Joel L. Pederson, Department of Geology, Utah State University,
Logan, Utah 84322-4505, USA, [email protected]
ABSTRACT
The Colorado River’s integration off the Colorado Plateau
remains a classic mystery in geology, despite its pivotal role in the
cutting of Grand Canyon and the region’s landscape evolution.
The upper paleodrainage apparently reached the southern
plateau in the Miocene, and recent work supports the longstanding
idea that the river was superimposed over the Kaibab uplift by
this time. Once off the plateau, the lower river integrated to the
Gulf of California by downstream basin spillover from ca. 6–5
Ma. An unknown link remains: the history of the river in the
western Grand Canyon region in Miocene time. One of the viable
hypotheses put forward by previous workers—that the late
Miocene Muddy Creek Formation represents the terminal deposits
of the paleo–Colorado River in the Basin and Range northwest
of Grand Canyon—is tested in this paper. Results indicate instead
that local drainages along with the paleo–Virgin River are the
likely sources of this sediment. The remaining hypothesis—that
the paleo-upper Colorado River dissipated and infiltrated in the
central-western Grand Canyon area—has modern analogs,
provides a potential source for extensive Miocene spring and
evaporite deposits adjacent to the southwestern plateau, and
implies a groundwater-driven mechanism for capture of the
upper drainage.
INTRODUCTION—THE GRAND DEBATE
The path of the pre–Grand Canyon Colorado River and how
it came to its present course off the Colorado Plateau and into
the lowlands of the Basin and Range have been debated for
decades. Solving the problem of how the river came to flow
off the plateau is key to understanding the formation of Earth’s
most famous erosional landscape—the Grand Canyon region.
The Colorado River did not tap into its potential energy for
erosion until it was integrated over the Grand Wash Cliffs and
off the Colorado Plateau, dropping its base level ~1500 m and
driving much of the subsequent canyon incision upstream
(Pederson et al., 2002a). Understanding how this happened has
been hampered by a lack of data, mostly the result, ironically,
of erosion having removed much of the geologic record of the
river’s history.
Based on his early river expeditions, John Wesley Powell
believed the Colorado River to be antecedent—relatively
old, with younger uplifts raised across its path (Powell,
1875). However, it was soon thereafter established that the
monoclinal uplifts of the Colorado Plateau formed in the early
Cenozoic Laramide orogeny and that the Colorado River and
its major tributaries are younger. Walcott (1890) first suggested
that the river was superimposed across the southern flank of
the Kaibab uplift while still flowing in overlying, less resistant
Mesozoic strata (Fig. 1). William Morris Davis likewise
recognized that the Colorado River is superimposed across
the exhumed older uplifts of the plateau (Davis, 1901). He
envisioned ancestral drainages that flowed northeast and then
reversed direction due to down-faulting to the west, with
recent uplift of the plateau rejuvenating the Colorado River
and forming Grand Canyon.
Broadly speaking, Davis’ model was validated and
supplemented by the work of subsequent workers. It was
recognized early on that the upper basin fill in the Lake Mead
region, southwest of the plateau margin, is relatively young
and that it precludes the existence of the present Colorado
River in that area (Blackwelder, 1934; Longwell, 1946). Closer
analysis of the sedimentary record of the Grand Wash Trough,
where the Colorado River enters the Basin and Range, revealed
a switch from internal basin deposition to subsequent dissection
upon the arrival of the exotic Colorado River at 6 Ma (Lucchitta,
1966). Thus, the Colorado River was integrated ca. 6 Ma and
carried out most of the incision of Grand Canyon since then
(Lucchitta, 1972; McKee and McKee, 1972).
How the river reorganized to flow west and what the
drainage was like before that time are elusive problems.
After the Laramide orogeny, drainages in the Grand Canyon
region were directed northeast off the ancestral Mogollon
highland (Young and McKee, 1978). In Oligocene time, these
consequent drainages were disrupted by magmatism in the
central plateau, by the onset of arid climate, and potentially by
epeirogenic uplift (e.g., Cather et al., 2008). In Charlie Hunt’s
extensive work (1956, 1969), he concluded that much of the
upper Colorado River drainage had established itself on the
northern and central plateau by Miocene time. So where did
the drainage go when it reached the southern plateau? Research
along the Mogollon Rim indicates that there was no Miocene
exit route for the river to the southwest (Young and Brennan,
1974). Therefore, the main working hypotheses have been that
the ancestral upper Colorado River: (a) issued southeast along
the Little Colorado River trough either off the plateau or into
the Bidahochi Formation of the south-central plateau (McKee
et al., 1967); (b) crossed the Kaibab uplift and terminated in the
southwestern Colorado Plateau (Hunt, 1956); or (c) crossed the
Kaibab uplift and continued northwest across the low plateaus
and into the Basin and Range (Fig. 1; Lucchitta, 1990).
Regarding hypothesis (a), researchers proposed that the
Miocene river exited the plateau to the southeast to account
for earlier Miocene erosion in the area (McKee et al., 1967).
But there is no evidence for such a river, and the presence of
the Bidahochi Formation along this path is a problem (e.g.,
Hunt, 1969). The Bidahochi dates to the time in question, but it
GSA Today: v. 18, no. 3, doi: 10.1130/GSAT01803A.1
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Figure 1. Regional geography and topography of Grand Canyon and Lake Mead region along the Colorado River at the edge of the Colorado Plateau
(gray area of inset), southwestern United States. Large arrows indicate hypothetical paths of late Miocene upper Colorado River before major incision of
Grand Canyon, with letters matching the hypotheses as reviewed in the text.
comprises local fluvial and volcaniclastic deposits rather than
basin fill from an exotic river, and it is a small-volume unit
with low sediment accumulation rates (Love, 1989; Dallegge
et al., 2001).
Hunt’s hypothesis (b), that the river arrived in the centralwestern Grand Canyon area and simply infiltrated and
terminated, never gained traction—and was not well loved even
by Hunt himself. The final hypothesis (c), that the river exited
the Colorado Plateau to the northwest and debouched into the
Basin and Range, has been described by Lucchitta (1990). These
two ideas are both predicated upon the Colorado River gaining
its path across the Kaibab uplift in middle Cenozoic time (Fig.
1). Davis (1901) and Strahler (1948) long ago recognized that
the river’s maneuver across this particular uplift does not
require a different explanation than the one evident for the
other Laramide orogens of the plateau—superposition. Indeed,
thermochronological data indicate that significant canyon relief
developed across the Kaibab uplift ca. 30–25 Ma, when a thick
Mesozoic sedimentary section remained in the area east of
the Kaibab uplift where there is now an erosional declivity
(Lee, 2007; Flowers et al., 2008). It therefore seems likely that
as it established its present path through the central plateau
GSA TODAY, MARCH 2008
in late Oligocene–early Miocene time, the paleoriver flowed
westward on the Mesozoic section, was superimposed along
the curving south edge of the Kaibab uplift, and crossed into
the central-western Grand Canyon region (Lucchitta, 1990).
The most viable candidate for a sedimentary record of
this potential drainage in hypothesis (c) is the Muddy Creek
Formation in the basins north of Lake Mead (Fig. 1). To
understand the origin of this basin fill, a series of exposures
and samples along a west-to-east transect from the Table Mesa
basin through the Glendale Basin and into the Virgin Basin
were studied to determine provenance and record how the
exposed upper Muddy Creek facies change laterally (Fig. 2).
Could this basin fill represent the terminus of the ancestral
upper Colorado River? Longwell’s (1928) original assessment of
the Muddy Creek in the southern Virgin Basin was that its finegrained sedimentary fill is incompatible with a Colorado River
origin. But the Colorado River’s famously large sediment load
is ~90% clay, silt, and sand, and recent research on the Muddy
Creek basin fill has resurrected the idea that the ancestral
Colorado may have been a sediment source (Pederson et
al., 2000). If this is true, then the Muddy Creek would be
a slightly older analog for a series of units along the lower
5
Figure 2. (A) Features of study area and transect of numbered study sites across the
northern basins of the Lake Mead region. Paleocurrent data are represented in rose
diagrams. Bold arrows are interpreted sediment pathways feeding the Muddy Creek
Formation. Photographs illustrate trends in the Muddy Creek: (B) from Table Mesa
basin between localities 1 and 2, and (C) of locality 8 on the east flank of Mormon
Mesa. The unit generally coarsens upward, and finer-grained sediment of alluvial slope and lacustrine environments (B) transitions eastward to coarser
fluvial sediment. Studied exposures of the middle member of the Muddy Creek lie below the younger capping or inset gravels in these photos.
Colorado River corridor and the Salton Trough, which record
the progressive southward arrival and deltaic sedimentation of
the early Pliocene Colorado River (cf. Lucchitta, 1972; Buising,
1990; House et al., 2005; Dorsey et al., 2007).
MUDDY CREEK FORMATION NORTH OF LAKE MEAD
The Muddy Creek Formation has been defined as the latestage (mostly post-faulting) basin fill of a series of somewhat
connected extensional basins in the Lake Mead area (Stock,
1921; Bohannon, 1984). The Muddy Creek Formation has been
dated by fossils, absolute dating, and tephra correlation as from
11 Ma to ca. 5 Ma. Neither the basin fill of the Grand Wash
Trough, which is termed Muddy Creek Formation by some
workers, nor the Muddy Creek in the Las Vegas and Boulder
basins to the southwest are included here because they were
sedimentologically and topographically disconnected from the
study basins (Fig. 2).
Basin-forming extension, accommodated by dip-slip on
normal faults, detachment faulting, and large-scale transfer
zones with oblique-slip, tapered off in the study area after
middle Miocene time (e.g., Anderson, 1973; Bohannon, 1984;
Duebendorfer and Simpson, 1994). An exception to this
is the eastern margin of the Mesquite Basin (Fig. 1), where
Pliocene and Pleistocene faulting has deformed the Muddy
Creek Formation (Williams, 1996; Billingsley and Bohannon,
1995). Generally, the unit was accommodated in basins that
were underfilled as local tectonic activity waned. Although
6
these structural basins had internal surface drainage during
their formation, depositional systems overtopped low divides
between basins, and the region became hydrologically and
sedimentologically interconnected in the late Miocene, though
not externally drained. This area was subsequently integrated
into the greater present-day Colorado River drainage, which
ended Muddy Creek deposition and led to downcutting and
incision of the fill in latest Miocene to early Pliocene time,
varying according to the timing of local drainage integration
(Bohannon, 1984).
The Muddy Creek Formation contains laterally gradational
facies that are interpreted to range from evaporate- and
travertine-rich lake deposits lower in the stratigraphy and
to the south and west to pebbly fluvial gravel as the unit
coarsens upward and to the east (Longwell, 1946; Bohannon,
1984; Kowallis and Everett, 1986; Dicke, 1990; Schmidt, 1994;
Billingsley, 1995; Schmidt et al., 1996; Williams, 1996; Pederson
et al., 2000). In the westernmost basins, the upward transition
from saline-lacustrine deposits to the overlying subaerial,
siliciclastic-rich deposits of the middle Muddy Creek is abrupt,
suggesting basin interconnection and the introduction of
extrabasinal sediment at this time (Pederson et al., 2000). The
siliciclastic middle member thickens greatly to the east from ~80
m in Table Mesa basin to ~2000 m, mostly in the subsurface, in
the Mesquite Basin (Bohannon et al., 1993). It is dominated by
pink to light red, laminated, cross-stratified or bioturbated and
massive, calcareous and gypsiferous, thin to medium interbeds
MARCH 2008, GSA TODAY
of mud and sand. This fine-grained, monotonous Muddy Creek
is characteristic of sediment deposited in late-stage continental
basins having mostly subaerial, sedimentary environments,
such as alluvial slopes (Langford et al., 1999; Smith, 2000). In
most areas, coarse facies are absent in the lower and middle
Muddy Creek or are restricted to piedmont gravels found at the
very basin edges.
The contrasting, strongly upward-coarsening capping beds
of the upper Muddy Creek Formation have been recognized
across the study area and are generally early Pliocene in age
(Schmidt, 1994; Williams, 1996; Pederson et al., 2001). In the
western study basins, these capping beds reflect a climatedriven change to the strong progradation of piedmont gravel
from local mountainsides into the basins (Pederson et al., 2001).
At the east end of the study transect, part of this capping unit
has been identified as Virgin River gravel entering the Mesquite
Basin from the Colorado Plateau (Billingsley, 1995; Billingsley
and Bohannon, 1995; Williams, 1996). The early Pliocene
change from Muddy Creek deposition to incision of the basin
fill is marked by the first of a series of inset piedmont gravels
and Virgin River gravels in the Mesquite Basin (Schmidt, 1994;
Williams, 1996).
The new data here are from outcrops of the fine-grained,
siliciclastic middle member of the Muddy Creek Formation, not
from the capping or inset gravels. These outcrops are probably
all sediment of latest Miocene age, and the study basins were
apparently connected at this stratigraphic level. The gradation
from finer and more lacustrine to coarser, thicker fluvial deposits
from west to east, as well as upward within the unit at a given
locality, is broadly consistent with the hypothesis that a river
source entered the Mesquite Basin from the east. Regarding the
sources of this sediment, one may infer that, like most of the
Basin and Range, the basin fill was derived from surrounding
mountainsides. The Virgin Mountains on the south flank of
the Mesquite Basin include Proterozoic metamorphic rock,
but the mountains surrounding Coyote Springs Valley, Table
Mesa basin, Glendale Basin, and Virgin Basin are dominated
by a 3000-m-thick Paleozoic sedimentary succession, almost
entirely of marine carbonates. Carbonate rock is strong and
difficult to weather in an arid climate, and petrologic studies
in the western study basins confirm that the local mountains
were not a major source of the siliciclastic middle member
(Pederson et al., 2001). What, then, are the extrabasinal sources
of this sediment?
SEDIMENT SOURCES FOR THE MUDDY CREEK
FORMATION
A series of outcrops along a west-to-east transect from the east
edge of the Coyote Springs Valley and Table Mesa basin through
the Glendale Basin and into the Virgin and Mesquite basins were
described and sampled (sites 1–11, Fig. 2; see GSA Data Repository
Table DR11). All sampled localities lie ~30 m below the top of
the siliciclastic middle member. Where possible, paleocurrent
indications were recorded from cross-bedding and pebble
imbrication. To explore the provenance of sediment, samples
were collected from the study sites and their fine-sand fractions
were mounted and thin-sectioned, stained for K-feldspar, and
grain mineral types were counted under a microscope to a total
of 400 (see data repository Table DR2 [footnote 1]). In addition,
heavy-mineral suites from samples were separated using a heavy
liquid. These were mounted, and minerals were counted until
>400 non-opaque grains were recorded (data repository Table
DR3 [footnote 1]). At localities 5, 8, and 10, vertical transects of
three subsamples were taken (a, b, and c) and spaced through
the entire exposure of the middle member, in order to explore
trends as the unit coarsens upward.
Petrographic analyses were also made on samples of
unconsolidated sand representative of five distinct sediment
sources: a lower-member sample from Table Mesa basin
derived from local Paleozoic bedrock (sample LoC); a sample
from Pleistocene alluvium of Beaver Dam Wash in the
Mesquite Basin derived from volcanic terrain of the Caliente
caldera complex (sample LoV); Pleistocene piedmont alluvium
on the north flank of the Virgin Mountains derived from
metamorphic bedrock (sample LoM); Pleistocene Virgin River
sand sampled from a terrace where the river enters the eastern
Mesquite Basin upstream of Littlefield, Arizona (sample VR);
and Pleistocene Colorado River sand from a terrace at Lees
Ferry (sample CR). This last sample is intended to approximate
the composition of sand from an ancestral Colorado River. The
Miocene upper drainage would have been eroding mostly the
Mesozoic and early Cenozoic sections of the plateau, just as
the present river above Lees Ferry does, and the paleodrainage
would have lacked Paleozoic detritus before the deep incision
of Grand Canyon downstream of Lees Ferry (Fig. 1; Pederson
et al., 2002b).
The sedimentology of the upper-middle member of
the Muddy Creek at the study sites is consistent with the
overall trend of coarsening upward and coarsening to the
east, becoming more fluvial in depositional environment
(Table DR1 [see footnote 1]). For example, localities 1–3 on
the western end of the transect are characterized by sandy
calcareous and gypsiferous mud likely deposited in shallow
lacustrine or alluvial slope environments (Fig. 2B). Starting at
locality 4 in the western Glendale Basin, these facies become
interbedded with lenticular channel sand and gravel bodies; a
few eolian sand beds confirm subaerial deposition. Eastward
to the Virgin Basin, the predominant facies is lenticular
crossbedded pebbly sand interbedded with overbank fines
(Table DR1; Fig. 2C). This general picture is, however, locally
complicated. Paleocurrent indicators at localities 5, 7, and 11
are south- or southeast-directed instead of westward, and the
sediments at these same localities do not follow the trend of
coarsening to the east (Fig. 2; Table DR1). Localities 1 and 5 are
anomalously coarser-grained relative to neighboring localities,
and the easternmost of all localities (11), near the hypothetical
mouth of the paleoriver source, has fine-grained deposits and
southeast-directed paleocurrents.
Transect and source-area samples are plotted in ternary
diagrams (Tables DR2 and DR3 [see footnote 1]) with endpoint
grain types chosen to best distinguish sediment sources (Fig. 3),
because traditional quartz-feldspar-lithics (QFL) plots do not
1GSA
Data Repository item 2008077, sedimentary descriptions and petrographic point-count data, is available at www.geosociety.org/pubs/ft2008.
htm. You can also obtain a copy by writing to [email protected]
GSA TODAY, MARCH 2008
7
Figure 3. Ternary plots of Muddy Creek Formation samples representing possible sediment sources (data are summarized in GSA Data Repository Tables
DR2 and DR3 [see text footnote 1]). Plotted numbers correspond to samples from locations on Figure 2 and Table DR1. Plotted letters are samples
representing sediment sources: CR—Colorado River; VR—Virgin River; LoM—local metamorphic terrain; LoC—local carbonate terrain; LoV—volcanic
bedrock source. (A) Plot of grain-mount results with corner points designed to distinguish potential sediment sources; Q—quartz; Lc—carbonate
lithics; Lv+san—volcanic lithics and sanidine. Ovals outline two populations: one with a compositionally mature exotic river source and another that
is a combination of local and volcanic sediment sources. No data for location 10. (B) Plot of heavy mineral results: ZTR—zircon, tourmaline, and rutile
maturity index distinguishing exotic fluvial sources; ES×2—epidote and sphene counts multiplied by two in order to draw from the right axis those
samples with a component of local Paleozoic sources; H—hornblende for sediment with volcanic and metamorphic bedrock sources. Ovals outline the
same two populations of samples. (C) Heavy mineral plot showing vertical transect samples at localities 5, 8, and 10, going from base (a) to top (c) of
exposed middle member. Note trend of increasing volcanic input upward in the section (red arrow).
succeed in this. The “Lc” apex represents lithic carbonate
grains derived from Paleozoic carbonate bedrock of the
surrounding mountains. “Lv+san” comprises volcanic lithic
clasts and sanidine, which must be derived from the volcanic
terrain to the north of the basins. Likewise, the “ES×2” apex of
the heavy mineral plots is intended to draw out local carbonate
bedrock sources, which produce very low heavy-mineral
yields. The low abundances of epidote and sphene, perhaps
recycled from yet older basement sources, are amplified and
used in the absence of more indicative minerals. Hornblende
is abundant in the heavy-mineral suites of both metamorphic
and volcanic bedrock sources. Finally, quartz and the zircontourmaline-rutile (ZTR) heavy-mineral maturity index are
intended to distinguish the mature compositions of the
Colorado and Virgin rivers.
The ternary plots reveal two populations of samples (Figs. 3A
and 3B). One set is interpreted as a mixture of local carbonate
and metamorphic sources, as well as slightly farther-traveled
volcanic detritus (red oval). The other population is similar to
sediment of the Colorado and Virgin rivers (blue oval). Only
the three westernmost samples (localities 1–3) have significant
local Paleozoic carbonate bedrock contributions. Volcanic
sources are strongly represented at localities 5 and 11, and
samples from localities 6–10 in the central part of the transect
are compositionally mature (relatively rich in quartz and ZTR),
like Colorado and Virgin rivers samples (Figs. 3A and 3B).
Heavy-mineral results are less distinct than light mineral grains,
but the vertical transects at locations 5, 8, and 10 indicate an
increased contribution from volcanic sources upward through
the sections, from subsamples a–c (Fig. 3C). The result that
local sources dominate areas to the west and north, whereas
compositionally mature sediment is more abundant in the
southern Mesquite Basin, confirms that an exotic sediment
source from the east (the Colorado Plateau) provided sand
lacking in carbonate-, volcanic-, and basement-derived grains.
If a major paleo–Colorado River entered the east end of
the Mesquite Basin, sample compositions from locations 1–11
8
should become increasingly similar to Colorado River sediment
from west to east. However, they do not (Figs. 3A and 3B).
Petrographic results instead indicate a significant contribution
to the Muddy Creek Formation by volcanic sources, including
at the easternmost sample locality, consistent with the
sedimentologic and paleocurrent observations (Table DR1
[see footnote 1]; Fig. 2). The middle member also becomes
more volcanically derived as it coarsens upward (Fig. 3C). This
matches the present-day pattern of large drainages that have
source areas in the volcanic terrain of the Caliente and Kane
Springs caldera complexes to the north (Figs. 1 and 2). Colorado
River and Virgin River sands are compositionally similar and
cannot be distinguished by these petrographic data alone. In
fact, sample compositions may be explained entirely with an
ancestral Virgin River source, consistent with field evidence
for a Virgin River source in the Muddy Creek Formation of the
Mesquite Basin (Billingsley, 1995; Billingsley and Bohannon,
1995; Williams, 1996).
DISCUSSION
Geographically, the Muddy Creek Formation is a logical
candidate for terminal deposits of a pre–Grand Canyon
Colorado River. There is evidence for a moderate amount of
extra-basinal fluvial sediment entering the Mesquite Basin in
late-Miocene time, but the most likely candidate for this is the
ancestral Virgin River. Sedimentological, petrographic, and
field data indicate that Miocene sediment pathways imitated
present-day drainage patterns into these basins (Fig. 2) and
that much of the Muddy Creek is derived from volcanic terrain
to the north of the Mormon Mountains. Therefore, a northwest
passage out of the Grand Canyon region with a Muddy Creek
Formation terminus for the ancestral Colorado River can be
ruled out.
A single hypothesis for the fate of the Miocene Colorado
River remains: Hunt’s largely forgotten idea that a relatively
meager paleo–Colorado River made its way to the centralwestern Grand Canyon region and infiltrated into the cavernous
MARCH 2008, GSA TODAY
Paleozoic limestones that dominate the bedrock there. The
concept of a major drainage area terminating in a desert basin
is not far-fetched. Modern analogs of the same scale as the
upper Colorado or larger include (1) the greater Tarim River
system and tributaries draining the high Kunlun and Tien Shan
and ending in the deserts of northeast China’s Tarim Basin; (2)
the Cubango-Okavango River rising in Angola and terminating
in its famous delta at the edge of the Kalahari; and (3) the large
drainages leading to Lake Eyre and other central basins of
Australia. Closer by are the significant, mountain-fed drainages
of the northern Great Basin that terminate in the saline lakes
and pans of the Bonneville and Lahontan Basins.
The infiltration and dissipation hypothesis may help resolve
more than one conundrum, including the mechanics of the
capture of the upper Colorado River. Blackwelder (1934) and
Longwell (1946) recognized early on that the upper Colorado
River could have been captured by either top-to-bottom spilling
over divides or by headward erosion. Headward erosion as
a process has an inherent shortcoming, expressed by Charlie
Hunt as the problem of the “precocious gully” (Hunt, 1969). How
could the head of a single drainage along a desert escarpment
have the necessary stream power or mass-movement activity
to erode headward and shift its divide hundreds of kilometers,
when none of its neighbors could lengthen measurably at
all? On the other hand, although House et al. (2005) have
shown that the lower Colorado River corridor was integrated
by spilling over topographic divides, there are problems in
applying this mechanism to the drainage in the Grand Canyon
region. Specifically, why are there no distinctive lacustrine and
deltaic sedimentary remnants in the southern plateau like the
younger examples that record basin spillover along the lower
Colorado corridor? Instead, there are late Miocene volcanic
rocks and deposits attributed to local streams (Lucchitta and
Jeanne, 2001; Love, 1989).
Perhaps the best solution for the integration of the Colorado
River involves different styles of both headward erosion and
basin spillover, with the key factor being groundwater. Surface
drainage capture typically follows capture of the groundwater
drainage by lower, adjacent topography (Pederson, 2001).
Groundwater sapping and spring discharge then provide
viable erosion mechanisms for a surface drainage to extend
headward. There is also the possibility that a karst plumbing
system formed by this groundwater could have collapsed,
aiding in surface drainage development. The now-dissected
karst system exposed in the walls of western Grand Canyon is
impressive and may provide a history of Neogene groundwater
lowering and canyon formation (Polyak et al., 2007). Finally,
infiltrated water from the Miocene plateau likely would have
resurfaced through springs in the low basins neighboring the
plateau edge. Hunt (1969) suggested this was the source of the
Hualapai Limestone of the Grand Wash Trough, and Colorado
River infiltration could have provided the needed source for
the voluminous Miocene spring deposits in the Hualapai Basin
and elsewhere in the Lake Mead region (Fig. 1; Faulds et al.,
1997, 2001).
In summary, the ancestral Colorado River itself may not have
made it off the plateau until 6 Ma, although it seems likely that
part of its water did. But where is the paleoriver’s sediment?
The Miocene upper drainage, having lower relief, a relatively
GSA TODAY, MARCH 2008
steady, arid climate, and not having been fully integrated to
its present size, must have had a relatively minor sediment
load. The burden it did carry may have been transported
away by wind or stored elsewhere along its path through the
central plateau, a region that subsequently has been deeply
exhumed. This remains yet another conundrum. For now,
Hunt’s dissipation and infiltration hypothesis is the last one left
standing against the geologic evidence in the region.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Part of the petrographic data of this study was produced by
Jamie Farrell for his senior thesis at Utah State University. This
research relied upon the groundwork laid by the late desert
geologist Dwight Schmidt on the sedimentology, hydrology, and
geomorphology of these basins. The manuscript was greatly
improved by reviews from Rebecca Dorsey, Tim Lawton, Paul
McCarthy, and Stephen Johnston.
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Manuscript received 14 June 2007; accepted 4 January 2008. A
MARCH 2008, GSA TODAY